- Project Runeberg -  Diplomatic Reminiscences before and during the World War, 1911-1917 /
407

(1920) [MARC] Author: Anatolij Nekljudov - Tema: Russia, War
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i9I6] MUTTERINGS OF REVOLUTION 407

have never left. But now nothing remains but weariness
and apathy. It has lasted too long. The people are
deeply displeased at the privations they have to
undergo ; they seize eagerly on all tales about malpractices
that are being indulged in, about dissensions in the
bosom of the Government, about Court scandals. They
comment on all that in their own way. When one goes
about a great deal among the people one often hears
things that make one shudder!"

"But the workmen are getting huge wages?
Drunkenness has been abolished? There are no ragged
people to be seen in the streets ? So whence comes all
this discontent ? "

"From our reverses of last year, which the people
felt far more deeply than is generally believed; from
the propaganda of the revolutionary leaders, which is
more vehement than ever. True, a workman’s family
at the present time have warm clothes, good boots ;
they sometimes even buy a gramophone; but the
moment any discomfort, any disappointment occurs :
a rise in prices, scarcity of provisions, a necessity to
spend hours on the pavement in order to buy the least
thing, brutality on the part of the police—and all the
relative comfort is forgotten, and one hears threats
uttered in a spirit of bitter hostility."

This conversation, like other somewhat similar ones,
gave me food for deep thought.

From the beginning of the war I had heard on all
sides that the danger of a revolution had been
temporarily warded off. All the parties of the Left,
beginning with the " cadets " and ending with the
Socialist-revolutionaries, had pledged themselves not to undertake
anything that might hinder the progress of the war; all
these people were supposed to have agreed that a
German victory would be the worst blow struck at the
cause of liberty, in Russia and elsewhere; that
consequently it was first and foremost necessary to win
the war.

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